GE 2020: The Facts

Gender Quotas

We’ve seen that getting onto the ticket is one of the barriers to women getting into politics. Gender quotas help women get onto the ticket, it’s then up to electorate to decide who will represent them in Dáil Éireann. The gender quota legislation means that a party must run a balanced ticket of at least 30/70 – if they don’t they will lose half their state funding. This should be a minimum – parties should be aiming for a more evenly balanced ticket.

Amongst the parties, only the Social Democrats ran a majority women slate (55% or 11 of their 21 candidates) and the Green Party (41% or 16 of their 39 candidates are women) ran a relatively balanced ticket. The more established parties were just above the quota.

It can’t be just a co-incidence! I’m reminded of @SamanthaJPower words to @women4election supporters on this subject “no surprise women leaders often out-perform their male counterparts... it reflects the struggles many had to overcome to get to their positions “ https://twitter.com/women4election/status/1268812585601826817